TIMELINE OF SOLOMON’S FIRST TEMPLE – BUT DID THE TEMPLE EXIST & DID SOLOMON EXIST?

TIMELINE OF SOLOMON’S FIRST TEMPLE – BUT DID THE TEMPLE EXIST & DID SOLOMON EXIST?

The Ain Dara temple in a village close to Aleppo, Syria, is an Iron Age Syro-Hittite temple, some say dated to 900 BCE, noted for its similarities to biblical Solomon’s First Temple

1300 BCE-740 BCE: In Northern Syria, the Ain Dara temple in a village close to Aleppo, Syria, is an Iron Age Syro-Hittite temple, some say dated to 900 BCE, noted for its similarities to biblical Solomon’s First Temple, as described in the Hebrew Bible and it predates the supposed Solomonic Temple. By hundreds of years. The temples of Emar, Munbaqa, and Ebla are also comparable to this Syrian Temple. Surviving sculptures depict lions and sphinxes perhaps leading to the cherubim of the scribes defined Solomon Temple. Massive footprints are carved into the floor perhaps implying gods were there, but there is no indication as to whom or what the temple was dedicated. Perhaps Ain Dara was devoted to goddess of fertility or other god like those that were found in Egypt, but often gods were locally defined.

859 BCE-824 BCE: Perhaps the scribes (rabbis) picked up on these sites in Northern Iraq & Syria to gain insight to write their story about the phantom Solomon and his phantom temple. The scribes knew about Shalmaneser III, king of Assyria, named for the god Shulmânu-Asharêd, and this name is the Assyrian equivalent of Suleiman or Solomon that the scribes perhaps used.

832 BCE: Solomon’s Temple – The supposedly Speculated First Temple may not have existed and even Solomon may not have existed as a Jewish king. They may have only existed in the scribe writings of the Hebrew Bible. Hebrew Bible says temple was constructed under King Solomon of Israel & Judah and it lasted for 410 years when it was destroyed in 422 BCE, 165 years later than secular estimates. Hebrew Bible says Solomon’s Temple, known as the First Temple in ancient Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II in war around 587 BCE-586 BCE after the Siege of Jerusalem. So we see the funny numbers the Hebrew bible uses do not match. Only limited archaeological surveys of the Temple Mount have been allowed so the very existence of the first temple cannot be verified and the authenticity of this bible story remains challenged and subject to controversy. It is also not verifiable that King Solomon existed or was Jewish. The speculated dates of Solomon’s reign are circa 970 BCE-931 BCE. Some evidence shows that the real ruler was an Egyptian King. The exact location of the Temple is unknown but is believed to have been situated upon the hill which forms the site of the 1st century Second Temple and present-day Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock is situated. We do know that a Mosque sits on that location today. The speculated Solomon’s Temple is considered to be built according to Phoenician design, but technical details are lacking and the dimensions of the speculated temple cover a rather wide range. Other than the Bible we have no valid indication it existed. Bible says, “In the year that king Uzziah died. I saw the LORD sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and His train filled the hekhal (sanctuary).” Isaiah 6:1.

721 BCE-705 BCE: The Palace of Sargon II was built by the King of Assyria and included 31 courts, 209 rooms, and a Temple. This has been uncovered showing the typical style of stone-masonry of the time. Enormous wealth was used in this construction.

721 BCE-705 BCE: The Palace of Sargon II was built by the King of Assyria and included 31 courts, 209 rooms, and a Temple.

600s BCE: A broken piece of pottery or earthenware vessel found in 1981 supposedly referred to the House of Yahweh and mentions a temple, but what temple and where was it. Other than a 1.7 inch thumb-sized ivory pomegranate found in 1979, with and inscription “Sacred donation for the priests in the House of —h,]” offers even a hint that a temple existed and nothing about where it was located. In 2004 the Israel Antiquities Authority reported the inscription was a forgery and the ivory pomegranate itself was dated to 1400s BCE long before the speculated temple was supposedly built. But some people are bound and determined to produce false verifications that the temple existed. The string of attempts continues to this day with no success, and have done nothing but muddy the waters of the existence of a first temple.

510 BCE: The Temple of Hercules was later unearthed also required immense wealth to complete. AMMAN CITADEL & TEMPLE OF HERCULES is now in Jordan: Amman Stands on 7 hills and the ancient citadel sits on one hill where the famous Temple of Hercules was. It is also known as Jabal al-Qal’a meaning the hill of the citadel, the highest point in Amman. Amman Citadel has been continuously inhabited since 10,000 BCE. 15 monumental statues of lime plaster and reeds dating from 8000 BCE to 6000 BCE period were discovered in Jordan, at the site of Ayn Ghazal in two underground caches, created about 200 years apart. The statues are among the earliest large-scale representations of the human form, and are regarded to be one of the most remarkable specimens of prehistoric art from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. The oldest part of the citadel is a cave that is supposed to be a tomb cave since 2300 BCE. Fortified walls were added around 1800 BCE. Some believe there is evidence of a prior temple there around 510 BCE, but that is not clear. The tall pillars of Temple of Hercules at Amman Citadel may have come much later. Only inscription dates the temple to around 160 AD. The statue was supposed to be 13 meters high, which was colossal in those times. A museum here used to have the famous Dead Sea Scrolls that were found near the Dead Sea and dated back to 400-300 BCE.

1390 AD: KING SOLOMON’S TEMPLE Historical Fact or Fiction? by Homer Zumwalt, 33rd Freemason in 1928. The Freemason ”Old Charges” of the Craft for evidence of the origin of the tradition of King Solomon’s First Temple, we find it is not mentioned in the oldest of our “Charges”, the “Regius Manuscript of 1390 (AD)”.

1410 AD: Someone added a scant mention to the Freemason Rituals in 1410 AD. So some say that is when the Freemason tradition begins in the “Cooke Manuscript of 1410”, but the mention of the building of the Temple is quite short.

1867 AD-1870 AD: No archaeological excavations and only limited surface surveys of the Temple Mount have been conducted since Charles Warren’s expedition of 1867–1870. There is no archaeological evidence for the existence of Solomon’s Temple, and the building is not mentioned in surviving historical non-biblical accounts. To confuse things even more Jewish authors Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman argue that the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem was not built until the end of the 610s BCE, around three hundred years after speculated Solomon of the Hebrew Bible when Jerusalem was run by little more than a small-time hill country chieftain, and argue that it was most likely built by Josiah, who governed Judah from 639 to 609 BCE.

1928 AD: KING SOLOMON’S TEMPLE Historical Fact or Fiction? by Homer Zumwalt, 33rd Freemason in 1928 states: The building of King Solomon’s Temple has fascinated the Archaeologists and scholars of history for many years, and is a subject of special interest for all Masons. Many of the lessons of Freemasonry are based upon the building of King Solomon’s Temple and have been handed down to us through Masonic legend as developed in early Masonic catechisms and charges. In the earliest rituals, the legend of the Temple did not appear, but through the passage of centuries, it has gradually acquired an allegorical and spiritual significance to all Masons and is an integral part of our Speculative Freemasonry of today. The Jews were not skilled craftsman so any labor had to came from other countries. But “did King Solomon’s Temple really exist?” And why haven’t Archaeologists found any trace of it in the excavations that have been made in the area, not one solid trace of the temple’s existence has turned up. Regardless of this fact the story of the Temple has remained as a part of Masonic ritual and degree work for some six centuries because of the beautiful symbolism of the tools used in the Masonic Lectures.

2006 Supposedly the two project found stone weights and a seal with the name (get this) NETANYAHU and another name on it from 700s BCE that they speculate were used to weigh silver. But the combination of names is unknown to scholars. Possible real temple locations are in Egypt or in locations some distance away from the site of the supposed Temple Mount and the dates of these three temples range from 750 BCE to 525 BCE. Several Iron Age temples in Syria have striking similarities to the Bible Temple and perhaps that is where the scribes or rabbis got their ideas for the Hebrew Bible. Jewish Bible & Kabbalah & Talmud are heavily invested in proving the speculated First Temple so tremendous energy has been expended to prove the temple existed.

TODAY: No direct archaeological discoveries made in or around the Bible’s declared site indicates the temple ever existed there. No other evidence exists that Solomon or the First Temple ever existed other than the Jewish scribe (rabbi) written Hebrew Bible. But the Mosque of Omar, or Dome of the Rock does truly exist in that location even today.